Microsoft's Up to Its Old Tricks With Nine Windows 8 Versions on the Way

Seems like Microsoft hasn’t learnt its lesson over the sheer number of versions of Office and Windows it offers. A bit of digging in the registry of the brand new Windows 8 consumer preview shows no less than nine different versions of Microsoft’s latest and greatest will be hitting the shelves on release.

Of course, this could all change before it goes on sale; there were rumours that only three SKUs of Windows 8 would be released. I guess to consumers it doesn’t really make that much difference; most of us will either get Home Premium or Professional, with some die-hard Windows fans grabbing Ultimate.

Still, it’d be nice if Microsoft simplified it a bit, for the sake of administrators and power-buyers everywhere; with 32-bit and 64-bit versions it takes the sum total up to a potential 18 different versions of Windows 8 – now that’s just crazy. [Windows 8 Beta via The Verge]